Cullen said the official rain gauge at Mobile Regional Airport registered 5.79 inches. A rain gauge kept by one of the agency’s employees about 5 miles south of the city showed a 2-day total of almost 16 inches, he said.

The Weather Service said Saturday rain totals in Baldwin County ranged from a little more than 3 inches to a little more than 6 inches.

Mitch Smith, a Realtor who lives in west Mobile, said he woke up from a nap at about 11:30 this morning to find a torrent of water pouring into his front yard from a blown-out manmade dam on a 14-acre private lake.

“It was like a rapid,” he said. “It just came flowing in like crazy. As you can see, mud was everywhere. It was bad. ... It was crazy.”

The water at one point was about halfway up the rails of a wooden bridge connecting Smith’s front yard to a tiny island that sits in a pond on his property. He said he often sits in a chair on that island, fishing and relaxing.

Smith said the water also covered about a half-mile section of a private drive leading to Nugget Drive, which is the only way out. He said he called 911, which sent the Mobile Fire-Rescue Department. Rescue workers told Smith that since no one was hurt, it was too dangerous to risk trying to send a vehicle past the water.

So, Smith said he and his family trudged up a muddy hill behind the house to Dawes Lake Road, where they met a waiting car to take them to the home of his wife’s aunt.

The view from the private lake shows the toll that the breach took. A tree sat in the middle of the cut. The water had slowed down but still was moving at a brisk pace this afternoon. Smith said the lake had dropped about 4 to 5 feet as a result of the caved-in dam.

In Bayou La Batre, according to police, the storm dislodged 2 shrimp boats and hurled them into J.A. Wintzell Memorial Bridge at about 4:30 p.m. Cpl. Harold Windham said officials had managed to clear the area.

He said the bridge remained operational this evening, although both vessels sustained an undetermined amount of damage.

Windham said police also helped 2 families evacuate Davenport Street because of rising water around their homes.

“They called us because they wanted out before the water got too deep,“ he said. “They didn’t want to get stranded tonight.”

The heavy rain also washed a large amount of red clay from the Gardens of Cottage Hill subdivision in west Mobile onto a private lane off of North Diberville Drive. The silt blocked the lane and covered a nearby homeowner’s back patio.

The woman, Melinda Bogart, blamed new construction from the subdivision. And she said it is not the first time she has had to deal with the runoff after a storm.

“When they build their houses up on those foundations, they don’t think about the rest of us down here,“ she said. “It’s just a mess.”

Heather Lucas, who lives farther down the lane, said she believes the runoff is what caused the dam to collapse.

“All this red clay came from here ... and it pours out into the lake and then fills up the drainage, and then the spillway broke,” she said.

Lucas’ neighbor, Buddy Brooks, said homeowners along the lane might still be trapped if he did not have 2 front-end loaders, which he used to dig out the red clay.

“It’s an ongoing issue,” he said.

Elsewhere in Mobile County, the Sheriff’s Office reported 2 or 3 cars getting stuck after drivers tried to bypass barricades.

“They’re there for a reason,” said Sgt. Joe Mahoney, a spokesman for the department.

Mahoney said officials had some concern about Franklin Creek, which was threatening to pour over Warren Creek Road and block the only exit point for some residents in Grand Bay.

“We kind of went by to see if they wanted to leave since it looked like it might go over the road, but we had no takers,” he said.

George Versiga, who lives on Warren Creek Road, said he was not concerned.

“Since they put a concrete bridge in and raised the road (about 6 to 8 years ago), we ain’t got no problems,” he said.